Obviously, I don't own Pokemon.

[=-CHAPTER 9-=]

- (Izan) -

"If you're planning on evolving Snorunt into a Frosslass, do you really need a Jynx?" Izan asked.

He and Aurora were walking around the city, going to different shops beside the Pokemart.

Still, the only thing he picked up was a traveling kit, rations, and a berry pouch.

An insulated container that could fit 99 of each known berry via spatial technology that cost only 300 Pokedollars? That was a steal and a half!

The science of it made absolutely no sense to him, and it probably never would. Something to do with [Minimize], perhaps?

She didn't buy much either. Just clothes. Mostly blue and white, he'd noticed.

"Of course! Having a psychic type will be a huge help with communicating with my team." She answered matter-of-factly. "…Plus, Smoochum is pretty cute."

She muttered that last part.

"Sure it's pretty cute but Jynx is… not. Not cute at all." He lamented.

"You're just looking at things from the wrong angle. Jynx is a lovely lady with a voluptuous figure. Don't insult Jynx because your eyes are bad."

He stopped walking and stared at her. 'Did… did she just defend Jynx's looks? Jynx?'

"My eyes are bad? Mine?! You must need new glasses!" Izan exaggeratedly picked up Sandshrew off his shoulder, holding her close to Aurora's face. "Look at her! Jynx is an abomination in comparison with my Sandshrew!"

The blush on Sandshrew's face was explosive, to the point where he almost thought he saw steam coming off her. Still, she put her hands on her hips and pointed her nose up.

"What does Sandshrew have to do with this?!"

"Credibility!"

"Credibility? Have you seen my Pokemon?! They're the epitome of cuteness! And beauty!"

"Well-"

The sound of the Pokemon theme song interrupted their very serious and absolutely real argument.

Someone was calling him on his Pokegear. An unknown number at that.

"Sorry, one second."

Izan clicked his Pokegear at the unknown number. "What's up?"

The voice on the other side was one he was sort of expecting. It'd been three days, after all. "Yo, Izan! How busy are ya? We were gonna meet up on the exit to Route 11 in like an hour."

Yep, it was Joe.

He gestured to Aurora before answering, and she waved him off in response. Didn't want to just ditch her out of the blue.

"Nah, I'm not that busy. Just got finished shopping for travel gear, actually. That exit is east of the city, right?"

"Yep! Take your time though, you've got a whooole hour. I'm gonna be here with the Meowth squad working on our secret technique!"

"If it's a secret technique, why would you randomly tell me about it…?"

"Cause if no one knows about it, it loses its mystique! And then no one would try and learn it because they wouldn't know about it! A secret no one knows about is pretty boring."

Izan internally sighed. 'This guy…'

"Sure, man. Whatever you say. See you in an hour, then."

"See ya!"

*Click*

He let out the sigh he'd been holding inside. He wasn't sure yet, but it was obvious that guy was always like this. Loud, boisterous, friendly.

…Headache inducing.

Seriously, he really needed to just talk at a normal level. Why did he have to scream for every single sentence?

"So, was that him?" Aurora asked seriously, any hint of previous playfulness gone.

"Yeah, that was him." He hadn't explained the mission to her in detail, but he did tell her the gist of things.

She, too, thought it was a bad idea.

"Are you sure about this? It might seem like nothing but this could end really badly." Her voice was laced with concern.

He knew that. It was a really bad idea in hindsight to do the mission, especially with people who didn't trust him and didn't try to hide their dislike of him.

But… after thinking about it, he realized all the reasons he had before for going on the mission were just excuses. Things he told himself to hide the main reason.

That reason? A feeling.

After whatever happened with the Nido-siblings, he'd finally been able to summon that strange power up on command.

His eyes could only turn orange at the moment, but it was enough for him. When he did it, his body was filled with way more power than he had any right to.

He didn't really test it much besides knowing that he could turn it off and on now. The most he did was kick an oak tree.

The tree… cracked.

There was even an indent where his foot had gone. And there was no pain in his foot at all.

It was exhilarating to have that much power at any given moment, but he was skeptical of using it whenever he wanted. An irritating feeling that he could only describe as 'With great power, comes great responsibility'.

Like the power itself was telling him not to misuse it.

And that feeling, one that came from his power trying to tell him something, stood straight up when Joe was around.

Izan realized that his power didn't really like him. It worked with him, probably because it had to, but it didn't really care for doing so. Maybe it felt he was unworthy? He didn't know.

But with Joe, it liked him. Like, a lot.

And he wanted to know why.

"No, I'm not sure. I've got a gut feeling but that's all it is. A feeling."

She studied his face for a moment with a frown, before letting out a sigh of her own.

"I think I get it. You're curious too, huh?" She muttered that last part.

'What is that supposed to mean?'

"Either way, I have a request for you. If I don't come back within 48 hours, call the authorities, would ya? Police, ACE, whoever. Dying isn't pleasant, ya know."

She scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Uh, yeah, I was gonna do that anyway. That's just common sense."

He shrugged, sharing a sad smile. "Fair enough."

The atmosphere was awkward as they walked through the passage on Route 11. It was a quiet ordeal, with only the occasional lone trainer walking past them.

Though, each trainer always made sure not to look at them directly. Most likely intimidated by a group.

Lora, the Rachel clone, was simply walking along happily ignoring the atmosphere and people alike. The small smile on her face was sort of annoying.

Robin didn't even try to hide her suspicions. She was blatantly staring at him the whole walk.

He opened his eyes wide and initiated a staring contest without saying it. He smiled when she stopped blinking, taking the challenge in stride.

There wasn't a chance in hell for him to win.

Joe, on the other hand, had been looking around the group utterly confused by the awkwardness. It wasn't that awkward for Izan, who didn't plan on talking much anyway, but Joe kept trying to initiate conversation only for them to trail off.

Probably trying to make it seem natural, Joe slowed his walking speed to match up with Robin, whispering to her with a very confused face.

Izan raised an eyebrow when Robin pointed her fingers at her eyes, and then at him, making the 'I'm watching you' gesture.

Then she proceeded to turn to Joe and explain something to him exasperatedly.

'They seem close. Closer than with Lora, at least. She hasn't even batted an eye at any of us since we started walking.'

Suddenly, Joe's voice called out loudly toward Izan.

"Hey Izan, are you gonna betray us or something?!"

'What.'

"What."

Joe continued as if he hadn't just asked a really dumb question. "You know, like, beat us up, trap us underground and take all our stuff? You planning on doing any of that?"

Izan blinked. "…No?"

"See! Izan seems like a pretty good guy. And even if he isn't… I've got you two to help me beat him up, right?" Joe laughed triumphantly at his conclusion.

'…'

Izan slowly looked up to the sky. It was a beautiful day outside.

'…I refuse. This can't be possible. There's no one who could possibly be this stupid. Or naive.'

Even Lora took a moment from her blissful walk to look at Joe like he was an idiot. Robin… blushed? Didn't expect that.

'A crush, perhaps? Good for him, I guess.'

Joe's confident laughter was cut off as all four heard the sound of bushes rustling. Immediately, their stance changed, becoming vigilant and watching the bush intently.

'What's up with them?' He couldn't help but think.

The people guarding never allowed Pokemon that were confrontational into the city or the sanctioned routes.

That was the main reason they were on the mission at the moment. If it were any other Pokemon, they'd be easily able to deal with them.

But Diglett traveled underground. And if a barrier or something similar got in their way, they'd simply go right under it.

Nonchalantly, five Rattata walked out of the shaking bushes, eyeing the group, before turning to keep walking.

'Heh. If this were the games, that'd be a horde battle right there.'

Suddenly, three Pokeballs soared through the air exploding into light and summoning three cats.

"I call dibs! Come on out Meowth Squad and use [Scratch]!"

Three masses of light spat out of the Pokeballs, merging on the ground to form siamese cats. Each one with a different colored bowtie and coconut-colored fur.

One, the one with a red bowtie, had a fierce look of a wild tiger. The other adorned a giddiness only seen in playful children, with a yellow bowtie to match. And the last one, even while attacking, looked depressed with its light blue accessory.

A certain trope was afoot, but the random battle stunned Izan too hard for him to even joke about it.

The Meowth scuffed the ground as they leaped forward, brandishing their razor-sharp claws.

Like deer in headlights, the horde froze and stared at their sudden attackers with wide eyes. Izan's bewilderment matched their surprised faces.

Why Joe decided to attack a few Rattata out of the blue was beyond him.

"T-tta!"

One of the Rattata, the biggest of the five, chittered something that broke the others out of their daze. Right before the Meowth claws could touch them, each one nimbly leaped over the trio of cats.

"Ata-ata!" "Tta!" "Rat-a!"

In sync, three of the Rattata wailed at the Meowth with the red bowtie as the rest glowed white. The cries become sound waves that hit the Meowth without fail.

A blue glow emanated from Meowth, prompting the aggressive cat to shrink in on itself and fold its ears back.

With that, the remaining two Rattata charged at once, slamming into the red bowtie Meowth. The impact knocked the wind out of the feline and concluded that fight with a sickening crunch.

Izan's eyebrows raised to his hairline. 'They are way more coordinated than I expected random Pokemon to be. That was a triple [Screech] and double [Quick Attack] combo.'

"Oh no, Rudey!" That was a weird nickname for a Pokemon, but Izan wasn't one to judge. "Go for another [Scratch], but try and single one of them out first!"

Taking a moment to glance at each other, the last two pounced at a single Rattata with malicious ferocity.

Apparently, unlike the cats, it had some battling skills. The two Meowth didn't even get a little close to the Rattata, missing over and over.

By then, the fear the Rattata horde once had was completely gone.

In fact, they started outright snickering at the display.

Well, Izan thought they were. Considering their lack of sapience, they were probably communicating.

It was a fun thought, though.

He had to do 'something' to refrain from walking past this entire battle and continuing down the road.

The point of the Pokemon world was for exotic experiences, right?

Something even as small as getting to pet a human-sized spider. Wrestle with a giant snake made of rocks. Marvel at a massive bird with rainbow wings that granted miracles on occasion.

Bring down organizations that threatened world domination or something similar. Meet and converse with, if possible, literal gods.

This? This was a literal cat and mouse chase.

Sandshrew was attentive at first, but then, she yawned and leaned more into his shoulder.

Izan agreed with her. This was indeed boring.

Robin was on the same page as him, watching the battle with a relaxed posture. He had the sneaking suspicion this type of thing happened often.

But, Lora was the exact opposite. She went from relaxed and even happy to crossed arms and fidgeting, tapping her foot.

Letting out a sigh, she spoke. "Oh my Arceus, Natu, please just-"

There wasn't so much a sound when a pink flash caused the Pokemon group to swap places. Two of them swapped mid-attack, causing them to headbutt each other. The other two had a Meowth teleported to their backside, much too close to dodge the incoming [Scratch].

All knocked out. And the last one hadn't moved.

The leader. It was the biggest of the five, after all.

"Huh?" Joe, taken aback, turned when he realized it was help from a friend. He flashed her a bright smile. "Oh, thanks for the assist, Lora!"

Her foot stopped tapping, but she didn't uncross her arms. "Mm." was her well-constructed response.

The Meowth both blinked as they realized that there was only one more rat left. Quick on the uptake, they jumped to both sides of the rat, stalking around it as only a feline could.

"Moody, make sure it can't run away! And Todd, try and intimidate it. Push it to come my direction!" Joe ordered.

The Meowth with the blue bowtie hissed at the Rattata opposite of Joe, blocking off its exit path. Meanwhile, the other Meowth batted the air in front of the rat, as if it was playing with it.

That was enough for Rattata to be wary, it seemed, as it jumped back, chittering and squeaking all the while.

'Did he really name his Meowth Moody, Rudey, and Todd? …I kinda feel bad for Todd.'

With enough jumps, the Rattata scooted right into Joe's reach. As soon as it was within his grasp, he smoothly flicked a Pokeball out of his sleeve and tapped its tail.

The flash of red that absorbed the rat was self explanatory.

"Ha! You're in for it now!" And then he proceeded to… squeeze the ball with both hands?

Izan couldn't tell if it was letting itself be caught or actively trying to get out. Or if him squeezing it was doing anything.

*Click*

He blinked. Well, it was caught now.

"Wait, can you just force them in the ball like that?" Izan muttered, slightly tilting his head. That wasn't something he'd ever thought about trying.

The bland look Lora gave Izan already answered the question. "No. Please don't follow in this idiot's footsteps for anything that requires brainpower." She rolled her eyes and looked back at Joe. "If the Pokemon struggled enough, the Pokeball would explode in his hand."

'Ah.' That made more sense. Otherwise, those jokes about ten-year-olds casually sending out pseudo-gods would be true.

They still could be true, just with him instead of a random kid. He did know the location of some pretty seriously powerful items if the anime or manga had any truth to it.

He could even still be a ground-type specialist. The Blue Orb suppressed Groudon, didn't it?

'Wait, don't those orbs let Groudon and Kyogre control you? And they seem to change function based on the timeline. Never mind, bad idea.' Izan shook the thought away.

"Heh. It's not stupid if it works." Joe said with a satisfied smile. The eye rolling from the girls was almost audible.

After putting away his locked Pokeball, Joe began to gently take care of the dazed Pokemon. Even the Rattata group he just bullied were administered Potions.

Izan, too, rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Did we really just stop so you could catch some random Rattata?"

That question gave him a different response from each person. Lora just ignored him, massaging the sides of her head. Robin looked at him with a slightly curious look, but said nothing.

Joe looked outright confused. "Well, yeah. My Pokemon gotta get levels somehow. Training and all that, ya know?"

Izan blinked. "Traning? That was a normal battle."

'It was kinda sad to watch.' He left unsaid.

In response, Joe stood up and dusted off his pants. Returning the rest of his Pokemon, he spoke. "I thought you of all people would know. Pokemon get stronger by beating other Pokemon."

Izan did know. That was why it didn't make any sense.

Pokemon didn't get stronger by just being giant bullies. Battles could only be beneficial if a Pokemon struggled to take the win. If the fight was so harsh that their body felt their life was on the line.

The only reason the Rattata group could counter was that it used status moves and good teamwork. Plus, the Meowth clearly had bad instincts and no battle experience. That sort of one-sided battle wasn't worthwhile at all.

'At least, I think so. If it was that simple, I wouldn't be ahead of anyone since Sandshrew has done such little battling.'

Izan shook his head. 'I guess it would technically be considered training in his case. His Meowth won't get any levels out of it, but they could get some experience with coordination. And landing their attacks. And… a whole lotta other things.'

Internally, Izan's opinion of Joe plummeted into the 'dumb' territory. In reality, he nodded.

Even if he explained it, Joe probably wouldn't listen. That was the vibe he gave off.

Dusting off his hands, Joe pointed down the road. "Alright! Now let's get outta here before the rest of the Rattata wake back up."

A gaggle of 'mhm's was the only response he got as they continued down Route 11.

- (Lora) -

Reality was a game. Lora was determined to win.

And she meant both statements with complete sincerity. No metaphors or anything like that. Reality, for her at least, was indeed a game.

The moment her eighth birthday hit, something exploded within her. Unlike most other women, puberty came as fast as it could. And with it came… changes. And again, unlike most other women, her puberty was a bit different.

When she woke up that day, everything seemed… clear. Vivid. Vibrant. Like the world was once blurry and now she had perfect clarity. It was a wondrous experience, her first time seeing everything in a new light.

And then the numbers appeared, plunging that clarity into confusion and headaches.

The numbers that shaped reality. That whispered in her ear late at night. Things she couldn't -shouldn't- possibly know. Filled her mind with details about things she was curious about. Backstories of people she'd just met.

They told her that it was all a game. That everyone else was an NPC- a non-player character, and that she was the only real contender. The only real player in a world full of fakes.

Uncle Xatu shut that shit down real quick.

He explained that she was simply a psychic and that this was her power's manifestation. A particularly high level of clairvoyance. That some people had different specialties and that hers was just… odd.

She listened, but she didn't believe him. The numbers were real. The game was real. He was only an NPC, and the game told her it was the way he rationalized his worthless existence.

And he was only called uncle because she didn't know what else to call him. He wasn't her dad.

Her real parents were both Pokemon trainers. Killed for some unknown reason in a random Johtoan forest and left to rot. By whom? No idea.

Why they were there in the first place with a child of all things? She had no idea about that either.

They were on the run from someone. No sane parent would take their baby into a feral Pokemon-filled forest. But who were they running from? Why?

Xatu wouldn't explain any further than that, so she left the clan's grounds. She stole an egg from the hatchery and slipped away.

To Kanto.

With her perfect memory, studying online became a cinch. And with her Youngster License, she memorized all the Pokemon knowledge available.

Existing as a 'Player' was taxing on her energy levels, as the smaller facets of her ability were always on. Like her ability to see someone's 'level'.

Her Natu was useful to make up for that. It was why he sat in her hair all the time. To be a battery, of sorts. She saw him as more of a comrade than a battery, but potato puhtahtoh.

So she decided to lay low for a while. Use the time until the third Rookie Recruitment, in 9 months, to increase Natu's Energy Mastery.

Money was a necessity, so she made some friends that could be useful for missions while she waited. People who could be easily swayed and wouldn't question her most of the time.

Joe was a low-level NPC. He had a high CHARISMA and VITALITY, but an unsurprisingly low INTELLIGENCE.

She wasn't that good at talking to people, so she was gonna use him to recruit others. That hadn't been necessary, since Robin was already acquainted with him.

They had some sort of history, but she tried not to pry into people's backstories. It always ended up with her saying something she shouldn't know.

Robin was an odd one. She was also a low-level NPC, of course, but she had a high WISDOM and a low CHARISMA. The two sort of complimented each other.

Although she wasn't particularly smart, she knew how to get things done. She knew what to look out for, and who to look out for. Street smarts, if you will. Meanwhile, Joe knew nothing and was like a child running after a Butterfree. But he could charm almost anyone with that smile of his, and get out of any trouble if he tried.

Robin could parse a plan to get out of sticky situations, and Joe could go through with it. A perfect team.

That was until Izan showed up.

He grated on her nerves ever since she saw him. For one, he looked at her like she was a bug under his shoe the first time he saw her. She almost panicked, thinking he saw her true personality, but no. He was just weird.

Understatement on weird.

Every time she tried to get any information about him, it came up… off.

She tried getting his 'Stats', and she didn't get much. He had a high LUCK. That was it. That was the only stat she could gleam, and it gave her a massive headache for almost a day.

A fluke, or something, she reasoned. Or he too was a psychic and could block her ability? Whenever that happened, all she got back was a disapproving look from the higher-level NPC.

A bit embarrassing, to be honest.

But no, even as she tried every method she could to measure him, he had zero psychic energy.

So when they met again, she tried to look into his backstory.

Bad idea. Nightmare bad idea. Like holy shit. All that even came up was-

'Izan is a Mystic with two halves of a shattered WISH. A ?, and a WISH from WISH. His WISH half was summoned by TIME, who accomplished this with help from Jirachi.'

And the mother of all fucking headaches. A throbbing migraine that almost made her stumble and mess her up her nice girl act.

What did she learn from that besides don't do it again? Virtually nothing. But at least she knew why it happened.

He was a Mystic. A person who was blessed by a minor god. Major gods didn't care about humanity anymore, but every so often a minor god would bless someone.

It didn't happen as much as it used to, but it still happened. There was a guy a few years ago who swept the entire Kanto league with a single Pikachu. It was the reason so many people loved the little mouse nowadays. Blessed by Mew, he gained insight into every Pokemon he met. It allowed him to bring out their latent potential to the fullest.

And when he disappeared, he left the first iteration of the Pokedex behind.

So she got the warning from whatever patron god was watching over him. To back off or she'd disappear too.

Though, if she used context clues, he was most definitely blessed by Jirachi. And he was in contact with whoever was blessed by… Celebi? Celebi.

Couldn't have been Dialga. He was a major god and they were… mean.

She would've straight up died if it was Dialga. Or got sent back in time a few thousand years without memories. Major gods were brutal. And cruel.

Now though, the only thing she was curious about was the question marks. Even if everyone else was an NPC, some NPCs were destined to be great. They could keep their crummy secrets and complicated backstories.

They were all still NPCs at the end of the day. She was the only Player here.

But question marks only appeared when it was a concept she didn't know about. And considering she had an eidetic memory, she knew a fuck ton.

There shouldn't be a single word she didn't know.

Unless it was a Pokemon she didn't know about? Was he a Pokemon, perha-

PAIN.

"Ah, fuck." She groaned. The headaches were back. Got it, don't think about it too hard or there would be consequences.

The soothing feeling of psychic energy permeated her brain for a moment. She opened her eyes to see a disapproving stare from a little bird. Her bird.

Natu spoke.

~Perhaps you should refrain from trying to observe that… anomaly? It is clearly above your ability~ He snarked. Sometimes she wished telepathy didn't come with the psychic package.

Also, she wasn't sure if he snarked or if he was being genuine.

'Thanks.' She deadpanned in response. He was a pain in the ass sometimes, either way.

He ignored her tone and bowed as well as he could. ~I am to please, My Lady.~

She frowned. He for some reason decided that he wanted to be a butler a few months ago and hadn't let it go yet.

Well, whatever. As long as he was happy. And the blanket was way too comfy for her to snark back at the moment.

Wait, wasn't she walking down the road? Why was she suddenly laying down on a comfy blanket? She had to get-

A wave of comfort blasted her from Natu's general direction.

She knew Natu was probably worried about her and was manipulating her to go to sleep but… meh. It was working.

Sleepy times it is.

Spoiler Alert-

No Like, seriously. SPOILER.

Lora is NOT a "Gamer". She is a delusional narcissist who believes her psychometry is nigh-omniscient. I'm only spoiling this because some people don't really understand that narrators can be unreliable. She's not a bad person per se, but she just genuinely believes she's the only real person in the world and thus doesn't really express empathy.

She sees her Pokemon and the people around her like a "Party". Like, she adores them as game characters but she would never actually love anyone. Sorta like how you play a game and really like a character but if they die then go "Aww, I liked that one. Oh well.", ya know?